Medical devices are often used to drain fluids within a patient's body. For example, ureteral stents can be used to assist the drainage of fluids through the urinary system of a patient. Some known ureteral stents include a tubular member and are configured to assist the drainage of fluid from one part of the urinary system to another part of the urinary system. Some known ureteral stents are configured to extend from a patient's kidney to a patient's bladder. Such known ureteral stents assist to drain fluid from the patient's kidney to the patient's bladder.
Regions of the urinary system are particularly sensitive and are prone to irritation by foreign objects. Thus, to avoid patient irritation and pain, it may be advantageous to provide urinary stents that is either configured to conform to the contours and/or movements of a patient's body or is configured to flex while disposed within the body of the patient. Thus, it may be advantageous to provide a urinary stent that is configured to conform to the contours of a patient's body. Additionally, it may be advantageous to provide a urinary stent that is flexible.
Some known urinary stents includes openings in the sidewalls of the stents to provide flexibility to the stent. Some known methods for forming the openings in the stents include disposing a mandrel within the lumen defined by the stent and cutting the sidewall of the stent with a cutting device, such as a blade. These methods, however, can lead to the dulling of the blade as it contacts and potentially cuts the mandrel that is disposed within the lumen of the stent. These methods also can lead to contamination of the stent.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a device and method for forming an opening in a stent that avoids the use of a mandrel and the potential contamination of the stent.